Abuse of power

Harvey Weinstein's legacy: A first step to removing the industry's systemic sexism.

BY GLENN WHIPP THE first time I met Harvey Weinstein, he called me an idiot in front of a theatre full of people. The last time I spoke to him he told me he knew who my enemies were and threatened to give me to them on a "dish served cold" so they could carve me up "like turkey on Thanksgiving." In the intervening 16 years, there were phone calls and e-mails, messages delivered by intermediaries, occasionally com-plimentary, mostly complaining about something I had written about one of his movies during awards season. And now he's gone, fired from the company he co-founded, in the wake of reports that he sexu-ally assaulted and harassed women for decades. The allegations, published in the New York Times and the New Yorker, including specific claims of rape and behaviour patterns of Weinstein using his position as a heavyweight producer to make sexual advances to countless women while Weinstein Co exec-utives looked the other way. The New Yorker report also contained a chilling audio record-ing captured during a New York Police Department sting opera-tion in 2015 in which Weinstein admits to groping model Ambra Battilana Gutierrez, describing it as behaviour he is "used to". That investigation was later dropped. Because my dealings across the coast with Weinstein were usually conducted by phone and always narrowly focused on the films and actors he was pushing in Oscar races, I never heard these ugly stories. I can't say my igno-rance isn't sobering. If you were a woman working for or meeting with Weinstein, you had to know. It was a matter of survival. Women employed by Weinstein would offer each other advice. Wear a parka if he wants to meet with you as a bar-rier against unwelcome advances. Double up if he asks for a solo meeting. Emily Nestor, one of many women who alleged that she was harassed at the company in the New Yorker story, said the mistreatment of women was a perpetual problem within Weinstein's New York offices. That all these women feared speaking out, dreading the embarrassment, retaliation and ruin that woukl follow, isn't surprising—just pro-foundly depress- ing. Women have to put up with this garbage in every line of work In his clueless apology, Weinstein blamed coming of age in the 1960s and 1970s when "all the rules about behaviour and workplaces were different. That was the culture then." And that is also the culture now. Weinstein wasn't fired because of his behaviour. The company's all-male board fired him because his behaviour became public and, thus, bad for business. If you're a woman and you bravely speak out about this kind of awful conduct, its guaranteed that a chorus of male nay-sayers will lecture you, belittle you and call you a liar. If you have the stomach for it, simply do a Twitter search, plugging in the names of Weinstein's accus-ers. The hatred is sickening. When Meryl Streep issued a statement calling Weinstein's behaviour inex-cusable and say-ing she wasn't aware of the offenses, she was derided for acting day. He was nothing if not persis-tent. I can't even remember the nature of that particular gripe. Last year, I called Weinstein to ask what was going on with The Founder, a movie that kept shift-ing its release date. After a few minutes, the conversation took a darker turn. Times film critic Justin Chang had written that Weinstein had "mishandled" the film's promotion and distribu-tion" a criticism that riled him, leading Weinstein to bring up many perceived slights I had written about him over the years, threaten to pull advertising from Los Angeles Times and, yes, ruin my career. know how to make you per-sonally look like," Weinstein said. And I'm not going to do it Just because you do it to me doesn't mean ill (In it tn you T refusea I just want you to know that I can, but I choose not to." But if he did decide to do it, Weinstein added, he wanted to make something clear. `Remember one thing about Harvey Weinstein: I am covered everywhere on the globe." The exchange chedced off all the bullying boxes- a little unhinged, a little delusional, wholly coercive, a belief that he holds all the cards and you're at his benevolent mercy. An insig-nificant glimpse into his abusive methodology, incomparable to the abuse and harassment he inflicted on so many women. But he was right about one thing. As we're seeing, he is cov-ered everywhere on the globe. As we ponder his legacy, we know it won't be about the Oscars or changing American independ-ent cinema. But it might eventually be seen as the first step toward removing the cancerous misogyny residing too late and castigated for claim-ing not to know. "Meryl Streep's statement is a self-serving exoneration of HoItywood," a Daily Beast editor huffed on social media Hera the thing: This isn't about Meryl Streep. Or Ashley Judd. Or Rose McGowan. Or Asia Argento. Or Kate Beckinsale. Or any of the other women who have called out Weinstein and the industry's mistreatment of women. It's about Harvey Weinstein and the countless men like him in the entertainment industry. It's about systemic sexism. It's about the criminal abuse of power. It's about sexual assault. It's about enabling and shield-ing predators with silence and shrugs. The first time I met Weinstein was also at a restaurant, along with my colleague at the time, film critic Bob Strauss. Weinstein's first wife, Eve, joined us. His fly stayed closed. Weinstein was upset because I had written a couple of stories deriding Chocolat, suggesting it had no business in that years best picture race. After a glass of wine, we walked over to a Westwood theatre showing his movie. When the credits finished rolling, he intro-duced himself to the surprised audience, asking i f they enjoyed Chocolat and wondering whether they thought it was a worthy best picture nominee. `These guys here say it isn't," Weinstein grumbled, pointing at Bob and me. It was a stunt. It was (sort of) good-natured. I left with a story to tell After that, I'd hear from him or his intermediaries annually. One year his office called several times while I was out with my family celebrating my son's birth-